Red Bluff Derby Girls

They're hairdressers, teachers and self-professed nerds, but above all they're women with a Do It Yourself attitude.

They're your Red Bluff Derby Girls.

Red Bluff's newest sports team is relying on a bit of nostalgia to help push forward a new breed of pioneering spirit.

"It's more than a sport," team founder and captain Chelssie Langum said. "It's a women's revolution."

History

Roller derby has become one of the fastest growing sports in the world. In the early 2000s the sport was reinvented in Austin, Texas from its previous rowdy roots. The sport's popularity and access has soared since then.

The Women's Flat

Track Derby Association was founded in 2004 as the international governing body for the sport to set standards for rules, seasons and safety.

As of 2011 the WFTDA has sanctioned 500 leagues worldwide.

A unique aspect about the relaunch of roller derby is it is run by women for women.

"You don't see that in a whole lot of sports," Langum said.

While the elbows and clotheslines and sometimes scripted outcomes of roller derbies of yesteryear are gone, some of the traditions remain in the renewed sport that focuses on strategy and technical athleticism.

Fun nicknames and fishnet stockings can still be found, but those types of camp are primarily marketing tools to draw in a crowd.

Once someone sees a bout, the idea is they will relate to the sport in the same ways they relate to football or hockey.

That's what happened to 25-year-old Langum after seeing her first bout.

Derby Girls birth Langum's mother, Charisse, remembers her daughter coming home all excited about not just watching the sport, but wanting to get involved with it.

Charisse said at first she was nervous about her daughter's safety, but that changed as she discovered what the sport has become.

"It's not like it was back in the day, but that's what I had in mind," she said.

That's not to say the sport isn't still physical.

The physicality is something that drew Langum, a former skateboarder and BMX rider, to the sport.

Langum joined up with Chico's Nor Cal Roller Girls to cut her teeth.

She spent about a year learning roller derby in Chico and Redding. Eventually the time and gas money began to eat at her wallet.

She put out some flyers and a Facebook posting to gauge the interest of local women to form a team and found enough to support her efforts.

Next she needed a venue.

Fair involvement Charisse remembered how she used to roller skate in the Tyler Jelly Building at the Tehama District Fairground and urged her daughter to contact Fairground CEO Mark Eidman.

"It's just something else - we kind of giggled when they started because it's so far out there for us," Eidman said, adding the fairgrounds is used to dealing with horse shows and tractor pulls.

"It sure is different, but it's been a lot of fun."

Eidman said it was fun to bring roller skating back to the building and he would support further efforts to open up public skating inside Tyler Jelly.

After Eidman gave his approval the Derby Girls started their Tuesday and Wednesday 6:30 p.m. open practices at the building.

And practice they have been.

We're talking about practice Langum said it takes a minimum of three months to truly grasp the sport and between six months and a year to earn your stripes.

There are tests on skating moves and rules.

Some of the girls who have shown up to practice have had little to no experience and Langum has transformed from a player into a coach.

Only one out of every three girls who shows up for practice ends up sticking with the team.

Those who do say they see their endurance has increased as a result.

On Wednesday, fairgrounds worker James Ledesma stopped by practice to drop off some benches for the players and take in a few minutes of the action.

He said he remembers the team's first practices.

"Some of them couldn't even skate, but it didn't take that long," he said.

"They look like a real team now," he said, referring to their fashionfriendly red shirts and striped socks.

Annie Crosby, 32, has been one of Langum's brightest students, having recently passed her skating test.

Crosby said she saw Langum's flyer at a local bar and knew she had to join after dreaming of doing roller derby as a little girl.

"I can't wait, I'm a little nervous," Crosby said.

The Derby Girls are preparing to host their first intrasquad bout in October, before they begin competing against other local teams.

Chico is home to a pair of teams in the Nor Cal Roller Girls and Viva Roller Derby.

Redding also has a pair of teams in the Redding Roller Girls and Shasta Roller Derby.

When they do play, Langum said she expects the Red Bluff Derby Girls to have an advantage.

She said the slick, concrete floor they practice on will make them all better skaters.

Derby bruises

The floor is leaving its fair share of derby bruises on the players.

"If you eat it on this floor, you 100 percent feel it," Langum said.

Derby bruises are a sense of pride amongst the women.

Michelle Rocha is a 42- year-old mother of four boys. After years and years of driving and supporting three of her sons through sports leagues from peewee to high school, she decided to turn her free time elsewhere.

"It was time for me to be me," she said.

Rocha joined up with the team and now comes home with a sense of pride when she has a derby bruise.

"It is a patch of sort we wear proudly for our Derby Sisterhood," she said. "It was made out of all our blood, sweat and tears."

The future

The Derby Girls are still months away from their first competitive bout, but it's not stopping them from dreaming about the possible future of the team.

Langum said the club would like to develop a junior team for girls 10 to 17. A second generation of athletes in the sport will be key for the future.

The Red Bluff Derby Girls are working on gaining non-profit status.

They hope they can use their resources to help children's charities.

Although their own resources are scarce right now, the girls invest their own money to rent the rink from the fairgrounds and purchase their gear, usually from online stores.

Langum said donations and sponsorships will be needed going forward.

The group has already had team shirts donated by Mike Collins through Collins Enterprise.

"We want to have a good standing with the community and show we're legitimate and here to stay," Crosby said.

How do you Derrby?

Each team fields up to five skaters per two-minute playing segment, called a "jam." Blockers play both offensive and defensive roles in a defined "pack" on the oval track.

Jammers score points for their team by lapping opposing players. Skaters may be penalized for committing a foul. Teams skate short while they have one or more players serving a penalty.

A team's full lineup for a jam consists of one Pivot, three Blockers and one Jammer:

Pivot: The pivot blocker wears a helmet cover with a stripe on it. She generally starts at the first starting line and serves as the leader of her teammates playing in that jam. As most teams play the pivot position at the front of the pack, she is also often the last line of defense to stop the opposing jammer from escaping the pack.

Blocker: The other three blockers do not wear helmet covers. Blockers may play offense and defense at any given time and frequently switch between offensive and defensive tasks. The rules do not differentiate the remaining three blocking positions from one another. However most roller derby teams choose to assign names and focus areas to the blocking positions for strategic purposes.

Jammer: The jammer wears a helmet cover with a star on it. She lines up at the second starting line and begins play at the second start whistle. The jammer's goal is to pass opposing blockers and emerge from the pack as quickly as possible.

If she is the first of the two jammers to escape the pack without committing any penalties, she gains the strategic advantage of being able to stop the jam at any time by placing her hands on her hips.

Once a jammer laps the pack, she begins scoring one point for every opposing blocker she passes legally. She can continue to lap the pack for additional scoring passes for the duration of the jam. Source:Women's Flat Track Derby Association

--------- Connect with Daily News reporter Rich Greene at facebook.com/richgreennews. He can also be reached at 527-2151, ext. 109.